


Sweet Dreams

by missbelrowley



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-01
Updated: 2013-06-16
Packaged: 2017-12-13 03:20:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/819357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missbelrowley/pseuds/missbelrowley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor visits Donna in Chiswick and finds she is happily married with a baby girl. But is it all real?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for the Whoniverse and I'm quite nervous about that. This story is a take on a Doctor Who episode that doesn't originally have Ten and Donna in it. You'll most likely have figured out which episode I'm talking about when you get to a certain point in this chapter.

Donna hummed a made-up tune as she carried her little Olivia in her arms. She smiled when the baby let out a sleepy groan. Olivia’s eyes fluttered open, blinking and squinting at first and then slowly, getting accustomed to the light, her eyes remained open, only closing for the occasional blink.

Donna mouthed a “hello,” when her daughter’s bright blue eyes looked into hers. “Good morning, my love,” she whispered before pressing a kiss to Olivia’s small nose. Her baby was everything she could have wished for and more. Olivia had her mother’s eyes and ginger-ish blonde curls sure to grow darker as she grows; an adorable upturned nose that curved perfectly; and the prettiest pair of little pink lips. Donna sighed, her eyes full of mirth. Just six months old and so, so beautiful.

When Donna first found out she was pregnant, she decided it would be better for her to refrain from taking any jobs until Olivia was at least six months old. For now, it would be her husband, Jonathan, who would work for the family. Now, Olivia was six months old and Donna had not yet found any companies offering temp jobs. She wasn’t completely put off by that, since it allowed her to spend more time with her little girl.

She met Jonathan at a friend’s wedding she attended shortly after parting with the Doctor. After nearly two years of travelling the universe with him, she decided she wanted to take her chance to settle down. She hasn’t seen him since, but occasionally reports of strange sightings and events appear on the news, and she knew her Spaceman was still out there somewhere, because she and the rest of the universe would not still be standing if he wasn’t.

She set Olivia down on her cot and went to the kitchen so she could make lunch. Jonathan had already left for work. She was nearly done setting the table when she heard a noise.

_The_ noise.

The noise that was the product of ancient engines and alien technology, the one that had always accompanied an ancient machine as it arrived or left.

“No,” she said, disbelievingly. She rushed over to a window and looked outside, and there it was – the familiar shade of blue, slowly coming into view, and the same sound. Her heart skipped a beat, and she couldn’t stop herself from rushing outside her house.  
  
It had completely materialized by the time she was outside. Her heart was racing, and she found this stupid and at the same time understandable. She stepped down from the few stairs outside her door and took a few more steps until she reached the sidewalk. For some reason, she was too reluctant to be the one to knock on the door or let herself in. But does he even leave it open? Then she remembered, she never got to give him back the key.  
  
Her breath caught when the door opened. And then he stepped out. Still the same skinny frame, same brown suit and long coat, same ridiculous hair and Converse trainers. He closed the door behind him. Smiling sheepishly, he gave her a little wave. “Hello, Donna.”  
  
She let out a breath, still not saying anything.  
  
 _Okay. Not working. Try something else_. He puts his hands in his pockets and decides to keep talking. “How long has it been?”  
  
She’s trying to look for her voice. She swallowed. “Two years,” she said, a bit unsure herself.  
  
He nodded. And then, for the first time in a very long time, he doesn’t know what to say.  
  
“Why’d you come back?”  
  
He shrugs. “I had to, didn’t I? Not when Donna Noble was out there living a life and I didn’t know about it,” he gives her a small lopsided smile at this. Donna’s heart jumps again.  
  
“Did Gramps tell you I was here?”  
  
“He did, yeah,” he replied, looking down at his trainers. Then he looks up at her again. “He also told me you were married.”  
  
She nods. “Yeah.”  
  
“With a baby.”  
  
She nods again. “Yeah.” The conversation is uncomfortable at this point so she says something ridiculously obvious. “So...you’re not dead.”  
  
“Wellll,” he says, in the same way he always said it, and she has to bite her lips to stop herself from smiling. “Yeah, but I had a few close calls, here and there.”  
  
It’s more than just a few, and he thinks that maybe, she knows that too.  
  
She nods again. She doesn’t want to ask how long it’s been for him because she knows it’s either been shorter or so much longer than it was for her. It only takes a few seconds for a pause to become awkward, and it does, and suddenly she becomes very fascinated with the ground.  
  
This whole time he’s been half-expecting her to run up to him and hug him, but maybe that was just because he wanted her to, and it would never be that easy with Donna Noble.  
  
“So how’s it been?” he asks, making her look up from the ground. “With your family, I mean.”  
  
“Good,” she says, nodding.  
  
“Your husband, is he nice?”  
  
“Of course he is!” she says. “And I don’t see why you have to ask me that since you probably asked Gramps that same question.”  
  
I did, but I had to hear it from you, he thought. Instead he nods and says, “Yeah.”  
  
She smiles at him.  
  
“So!” he says, in his usual energetic manner, rolling back and forth on his soles, with that wide grin on his face. “D’you miss me?”  
  
“No!” she says, shaking her head. It’s sarcasm, and she knows he doesn’t recognize it sometimes, especially when it comes from her, which is why she loves to use it on him.  
  
“Really?” he says, eyebrows raising and expression noticeably deflating. Obviously, he didn't pick up on the sarcasm. Dumbest genius in the whole universe.  
  
She rolls her eyes. “Of course I did, you dumbo!”  
  
His wide grin returns to his face and she walks over to him and hugs him. He’s only too glad to return the hug and he lifts her off her feet while he’s at it. When he lets her down, neither of them want to let go just yet. Donna still has her arms around his neck and she breathes in his scent, resting her chin on his shoulder. The Doctor’s arms are around her back as his hands stroke the soft, sweet-smelling ginger hair he always loved. “Oh, Donna Noble, I missed you so much.”  
  
She blinks back a few tears, wondering when she got so emotional. “I missed you too, Spaceman.”  
  
He missed her calling him that. He missed everything about her.  
  
They break apart and he says, “Well, I’m glad you did. Conversation was so awkward, I almost left.”  
  
“Oi!” she says, and swats him on the arm. But both of them are still smiling. The slaps. Oddly enough, he missed those too.  
  
“Come on,” she says, tipping her head towards the direction of her house. His smile grows wider.  
  
They get inside and she lets him go ahead and watches him look around her house. He’s nodding, his mouth open as he glances about. “It’s nice.”  
  
She smiles, suddenly a bit embarrassed about showing the Doctor her domestic life. “Well, I know it’s not much, so---”  
  
“No, no, no,” he says, shaking his head and turning to look at her. “It’s nice, really, it is.”  
  
The look on his face was genuine and she was touched. She smiled bashfully upon seeing how earnest he was.  
  
The Doctor goes back to looking around. “Where’s the husband?”  
  
“He’s at work.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Come upstairs, I’ll let you meet her.” He was about to ask who she was referring to when he remembered she had a baby now.  
  
He followed her upstairs and into the nursery. The room was painted with pastel colours and had two windows, providing it a lot of sunlight during the day. There was a cot with a mobile of the solar system hanging above it and Donna noticed the Doctor smile at this.  
  
She picked up Olivia from the crib, as gently as she could, and the baby stirred in her mother’s arms. Little Olivia’s mouth opened wide and she yawned.  
  
“Hello,” the Doctor said to her, wearing that dumb smile of his.  
  
Olivia opened her eyes and looked at him, biting her bottom lip.  
  
“She’s got your eyes,” he said, making Donna blush. “What’s her name?”  
  
“Olivia.”  
  
“Olivia Noble,” he mused. “Oh, that’s a brilliant name!”  
  
Donna rolled her eyes. “It’s supposed to be Olivia Bailey or Olivia Noble-Bailey, you prawn.”  
  
The Doctor thought for a second and said, “Naaahhh. I still prefer Olivia Noble.”  
  
Donna rolled her eyes again, but she was smiling.  
  
He holds out his hands. “May I...?”  
  
She gently lets Olivia into the Doctor’s arms.  
  
When the Doctor gets hold of her, his goofy grin only widens and he starts to sway a bit as he carries her. Olivia flashes her round eyes at him. She blinks at him. And then she makes a sound.  
  
“Oh yes you are, Olivia Noble,” he coos.  
  
Donna raises her eyebrows at the sight in front of her, highly amused.  
  
Little Olivia lets a few vowels slip from her mouth, just some incoherent baby talk, as any other human mother would think.  
  
“Yes she does, and when you get older, you’ll have hair like that too,” said the Doctor.  
  
“What,” Donna asked, “are you doing?”  
  
The Doctor looks at her, and simply explains, “I speak baby. Not an official language, I’m afraid, which is why the TARDIS can’t translate it.”  
  
Donna’s eyebrows narrow in near disbelief. “What’d she say?”  
  
“Well, the first time she said she was a pretty baby, to which I replied, ‘yes you are, Olivia Noble,’ and the second time; she said you had orangey hair.”  
  
Her eyebrows rise at that, and she nods slowly, not quite sure if that was a compliment or insult from her own daughter.  
  
The Doctor has his attention turned to the baby when she makes a sound almost similar to a meow. The Doctor’s eyebrows dropped back to its neutral position. He sniffs.  
  
“She thinks my hair’s ridiculous.”  
  
Donna smirked. “Like mother, like daughter.”  
  
Olivia is moving her little hands about, and she utters more incoherent sounds. The Doctor’s smile turns soft and warm, and he glances at Donna. “Yes she is.”  
  
Donna’s heart starts speeding up and she feels her face get warm at the sight of the Doctor looking at her like...that. “What’d she say now?”  
  
The Doctor’s gaze didn’t stray from her, and her breath caught. “She says she’s got a beautiful mother.”  
  
Her heart jumps at this. Her mind races to think of something to say to cover up her flush. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you never to flirt with a married woman?”  
  
He suddenly looks guilty and turns his attention back to Olivia, although she can still see the guilt on his face. “Sorry.”  
  
She laughs. “I’m only joking! Look, I’ve gotta down. Haven’t had lunch yet, and I’m starving.”  
  
When she leaves the room, the Doctor moves towards the cot, getting ready to put Olivia back down. “You behave now, okay?”  
  
He set her back down on her cot after sneaking a kiss to the tip of her nose.  
  
“If you’re anything like your mother, I can only imagine what it’d be like to raise you.” He blinks. “Don’t tell her I said that.”  
  
After Donna had eaten her lunch, she took Olivia on her stroller so she could join in on their walk. The Doctor insisted he push the stroller. Donna smiled and shook her head at this because if they weren't careful, people walking by would mistake them for a married couple, just like before.  
  
“Aaaahhh...Chiswick,” he said. “Lively.”  
  
Not really. The birds were chirping, the streets were damp and the grass was green. Nothing out of the ordinary, yet abnormally quiet for a residential area. No children playing outside either.  
  
“So it’s quiet,” Donna admits, “but you know, it’s calm, peaceful, don’t have to worry about being disturbed.”  
  
“So, your husband...what’s his name?”  
  
“Jonathan.”  
  
“Aah, and what’s he like?”

“He’s a good man, I suppose. There’s nothing wrong with our marriage, if that’s what you’re asking.”  
  
“Why would I think there was something wrong?”  
  
“I’m not saying there is, but –” Donna shook her head, realizing the conversation had gone to the wrong place. “I-It’s just...well, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking there was, I mean, it is _me_ , after all.”  
  
The Doctor looked confused. “What about you?” The two of them settle on a bench and the Doctor put Olivia’s stroller in front of them.  
  
“I just...” she sighed. “No, I....”  
  
“What is it? You can tell me.”  
  
She looked him in the eye and found concern and pleading. She sighed. “I mean that...it’s likely – well, _very_ likely – for any relationship, let alone marriage of mine to go wrong. You saw what happened when we first met.”  
  
His hearts twisted when he saw the sadness in her eyes and the doubt in her voice. “Donna,” he said. “That’s not true.”  
  
“Can we just forget it, please?” she asked.  
  
He looked at her properly and saw that she really didn’t want to talk about it, so he nodded. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“It’s fine.”  
  
A slightly uncomfortable silence arrives, in which both of them avoid each other’s gaze. The Doctor is the first to break it. “So...what do you do here?”  
  
Donna internally sighs in relief, thankful that there was finally something else to talk about. “Oh, you know...we live. We relax...we listen to the birds.”  
  
The birds had been chirping the whole time, but the chirping had gotten louder over the last few seconds.  
  
“Ah yes, birds!” he acknowledged, and then suddenly he put a hand on his forehead and groaned as if he had a headache.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Donna asked. The chirping was getting louder.  
  
He puts his hand back down and shakes his head. “Oh, it’s nothing, just a bit of...” when he trailed off, they both realized that they were involuntarily and insurmountably falling asleep. Their eyelids were getting heavy and their heads were slowly lowering. The last thing that they heard before they drifted off was chirping of the birds.

* * *

The Doctor woke up on the floor in the TARDIS console room. He jerked his head up and quickly glanced around. He stood up and looked around again to make sure. Console room, yellowish walls, lots of buttons and the TARDIS humming; and then he nodded to himself.  
  
He hadn’t even gotten back to fiddling with buttons when Donna came into the console room looking a bit confused. “Oh hello! Sorry, dozed off for a bit there, but fine now. Just...had a bit of a weird...dream thing.”  
  
Donna looks a bit like she’s thinking of something else, perhaps even trying to remember something but he didn’t notice since he’d gone back to pressing buttons.  
  
“Something’s wrong with the TARDIS,” he mutters, suddenly quite serious. There were small red lights on the console that were flashing and beeping.  
  
“Wait, dream?” he looked up at her. “You said you had a dream.”  
  
“Yeah, but you know, dreams...not really as important when you wake up,” he replied. He turned his attention back to the console. He went around a bit and then checked the scanner. By the look on his face, he was not assured by whatever it read.  
  
Donna still had her mind on other things. “I had a dream too just now...” He’s looking at the console and doesn’t say anything so she continues talking. “I-I was in Chiswick,” at this, his head snaps to look at her. Her eyes flash with remembrance. “And you visited me.” The Doctor takes a few steps towards her. “You were there.”  
  
“You were married. You had a baby.”  
  
Donna’s eyes widened. “How did you know that? Is it the TARDIS? Does she broadcast my dreams so you can see them?”  
  
“No no no, it’s not that,” he replied, turning back so he could pace around the console. He stops and leans with his hands on the edge of the console, deep in thought.  
  
She goes to him. “What? You mean...you had the same dream?”  
  
He doesn’t answer. She assumes yes.  
  
“Is that even possible?”  
  
“Yes,” he mutters absently, and then regains awareness. “No. Look, it’s time travel and we’re in the TARDIS; we’re bound to have a few psychic episodes now and then.”  
  
Donna still looked a bit uncertain. “So...”  
  
“We’re fine,” he assured her. “Back to reality; same as always.”  
  
Then they heard it again. Birds. Chirping.  
  
“But if we’re back to reality, how can I hear birds chirping?”  
  
The Doctor looked up at the console and around the room, as though he’d find birds in there somewhere. “I don’t know.”  
  
“The birds, they’re the same ones from the – ”  
  
“ – dream,” she said. The problem was that when she had finished her sentence, she was in Chiswick again, sitting on the bench with the Doctor beside her and Olivia in her stroller. Her head was resting on the Doctor’s shoulder, his head resting on hers.  
  
It took them a split second to realize where they were (and the position they were in) and they jerked apart.  
  
“Oh god!” Donna exclaimed. The Doctor was already on his feet and looking around. “Sorry, I just dreamt we were back on the...” she trailed off when she realized. “...TARDIS. Wait. We were in the TARDIS, and we were talking about a dream we both had.”  
  
The Doctor didn’t say anything, he already had his sonic out and was sonicking the surroundings. “Okay. Explain. What’s happening? Is it because of you; is it some sort of alien thing that normally happens you’re around?” she asked him as she picked up Olivia from her stroller and stood up to join him.  
  
He turned his head to look at her, his eyes meeting hers for a second before looking around again. Turning around in place, he scratched the back of his neck. _Oh god_ , thought Donna. _He’s got no idea_.  
  
“Doctor?”  
  
In the background, the birds could be heard chirping.  
  
He turned to look at her again. It’s the same look he used to give her when they were on their adventures together and encountered something dangerous, but he hadn’t quite figured out what it was yet. Worried. “Donna, listen to me; from now on, don’t trust anything. Nothing. What you’re seeing, hearing, feeling. Don’t trust any of it.”  
  
“But I’m here!” she explained, “in Chiswick...at home.”  
  
“And you thought you were awake in the TARDIS too.”  
  
“But I’m _home_.”  
  
“You might be,” he muttered, looking around.  
  
“ _What?_ ” she said, raising her voice. This whole mystery was really getting to her, and as much as she had missed travelling with him, her feelings about mysteries had not changed: however intriguing they may be, she found them quite annoying because of all the secrets.  
  
“You are at home, Donna, but you’re also dreaming. So which is which?”  
  
The chirping had grown louder, and like before, Donna and the Doctor felt themselves getting sleepy. The Doctor, after a few seconds of thinking, felt his legs getting weaker and rushed over to the bench to hold himself up. But of course, he ended falling asleep on it. Donna, who was slowly meeting the same fate, did not forget about her daughter and rushed to the stroller to gently set Olivia on it before collapsing on the bench and falling asleep.


	2. Two Worlds

They awoke with a jerk in the TARDIS, Donna on the jump seat and the Doctor on the floor. The TARDIS was wobbling and there was a somewhat strained quality in her usual hum. The Doctor jumped up from the floor and set to work on the console, pulling a few levers, and hammering it when it sparked. The TARDIS steadied a bit at this, so Donna stood up but held the edge of the console in case the TARDIS was to jerk suddenly.

“This is bad,” he said, eyebrows furrowed at the console, hand scratching the back of his neck.

“Does the TARDIS have a manual or something?” Donna asked him.

“Yeah, but it’s wrong and I might have thrown it into a supernova.”

“Brilliant!” she cried. “So...whatever’s wrong with the TARDIS, is that what’s causing us to dream all this stuff? Were we dreaming of the future or some sort of parallel world or something?”

“Dunno,” he said, absently checking the scanner. “But it’s just like what I told you in the dream: don’t trust anything. You could still be in Chiswick dreaming this.”

“No, this is real. I am definitely awake.”

“Yeah, and you thought you were awake in Chiswick too. You could be at home with your daughter and husband, I told you: don’t trust any of this. Look around you, examine everything. Look for any details that might not be real.”

“Well, I’m in a spaceship that’s bigger on the inside and travels through time and space with a man who claims to have two hearts,” she says mockingly. “So what may or may not be real isn’t that simple after all, is it?”

He was about to reply when the TARDIS sounded as if it were shutting itself off and the lights went out, leaving only the blue light from the console, which faded in and out. The two of them also noticed that it had gotten colder since.

“She’s dead. We’re in a dead time machine.”

It didn’t take long before they heard birds chirping again and started to feel sleepy.

“Oh god, not again,” he heard Donna mutter. They both headed for the jump seat.

When they sat down, the Doctor told Donna, “When we wake up in Chiswick, remember how real this feels.”

Donna managed to give a small nod before falling asleep, and the Doctor cast a worried glance over his dark ship before following.

When Donna woke up in Chiswick, she immediately took Olivia in her arms. She looked around. The Doctor was already up and examining the place. She stood up to join him. “Okay, this is it. This is the real one. I’m positive.”

“You thought that in the TARDIS too; you can’t spot a dream while you’re having it.” He was sonicking the air it seemed, and then he looked down at himself, checked his hands, felt his face and hair.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking. Could be a computer simulation,” he said, before slapping himself in the face. Shaking the feel of the slap off of his face, he concluded, “guess not.”  
Donna was about to say something about him letting her doing the slapping, but thought better of it. “Doctor, this dream or...whatever it is, is it safe? Are we safe?”

The Doctor looked at her and knew that she was worried about her daughter.

“And don’t lie to me, please.”

He searched her eyes and swallowed. He couldn’t bring himself to lie to her. Maybe he’d just avoid saying too much so as not to worry her, but if she asked him something and told him not to lie to her, he was not sure he could do it with as much ease as he had before. She deserved to know at least that, so he did as he was told. “I don’t know.”

The worry in her eyes grew and she looked at the baby in her arms, then at him. “What do we do then?”

“What we always do,” he replied, looking around again. “Investigate.”

And with that he took off, leaving Donna who stayed long enough to groan and roll her eyes – not the running bit again – before following him.

He slowed down when they reached a block that had a brick building. “What is that place?”

“It’s a retirement home,” Donna replied behind him, panting. Wasn’t as easy to run fast when you were carrying a baby, and Olivia was starting to cry.

“Must be a lot of them then,” the Doctor wondered aloud as Donna shushed her daughter gently.

“Yeah, lots of people who live here live until their 90s.”

He looked at the building with narrowed eyebrows, and Donna noticed some of the elderly who supposedly inhabited the building were looking out the windows. Her stomach churned with fear and uncertainty. The old people were looking at them. That's what she thought, at least. She could barely make out their faces peeking out from the windows. She looked away quickly and saw that the Doctor had turned to her and was digging into his coat pocket. His expression would change with every item he felt inside, disregarding the things he didn’t need, and looking surprised at certain items he did not expect to be there and he was elbow deep into his pockets when he said, “Ah, here it is!” and pulled something out. It was a baby carrier; the kind that a parent would strap around their baby and themselves so they would be carrying their child in front of them; worn like a rucksack but in reverse.

“How di –” she started to ask, but broke off when she remembered his pockets were bigger on the inside. Lots of unexpected and often useless things too; she remembered, in an adventure they had before, he had kept a mechanical mouse in there.

She took it from him and he helped her get Olivia – whose crying was getting louder – to wear it, occasionally throwing a glance at the building. When they were done and Olivia was strapped securely to Donna, he stroked Olivia’s back. “Ssshhh... you can’t be the Queen of England if you can’t handle a bit of danger.”

Donna raised her eyebrows. “Queen of England?”

The Doctor nodded. “That’s what she said just now: ‘I want to be Queen of England, what is all of this nonsense?’” he quoted. Olivia calmed down considerably. He nodded at the pair of them. “It’ll be easier to run that way. Alright there, Your Majesty?”

Olivia responded with a short sound.

The Doctor sniffed. “Still not amused, eh?” With that, he took off to the retirement home.

Donna groaned internally, doing her best to keep up when he called her name.

When she got into the building, the Doctor was already well past the lobby and on his way upstairs to the facilities.

She followed him into one of the sitting rooms, pleasantly decorated, where about seven elderly people were sitting on comfortable chairs; some were reading the newspaper, eating porridge, knitting or conversing with each other.

One of the old ladies, who was knitting a lumpy looking jumper, looked up and smiled at Donna. “Hello, Donna. Lovely baby.”

Donna smiled back. “Hello, Mrs. Poggit. Thank you,” not quite knowing what else to say, she looked at the Doctor, who was a few feet away, looking at what the others were doing and was saying something about porridge.

“Oh, is he your husband, Donna?”

“Oh, no no no, we’re not married,” they said at the same time.

“He’s just a friend,” Donna finished.

As usual, the person who assumed they were married did not look very convinced at their denial. Donna expected nothing less; she’d grown so use to it that it came to a point where she stopped caring, although she’d still deny it.

Mrs. Poggit nodded anyway. “Can I borrow you for a moment, dear?” she asked the Doctor, detaching the knitting needles from the jumper. “You’re just the size of my grandson.”

The Doctor nodded. “Oh, of course.” He shrugged off his coat and handed it to Donna, not noticing that she had rolled her eyes, took the jumper from Mrs. Poggit and tried it on.

“Ah, it’s perfect!” she said when he tried it on. His hair had flattened a bit from easing the jumper down and Donna smirked; he looked like the giant kid that he was. He gave Mrs. Poggit a smile before taking off the jumper, his hair pulled upwards with its removal, and handed her the jumper.

He didn’t, however, move from his place in front of Mrs. Poggit’s chair. He leaned closer to her, making her lean back further. It were almost as if he was inspecting an alien life form.

“You’re incredibly old,” he murmured, and the old lady stirred almost nervously under his gaze.

Donna was about to pull him away from Mrs. Poggit when the birds started chirping. Her stomach churned unpleasantly and the familiar feeling of being pulled into a sleepy haze engulfed her. The Doctor was going too. Dropping his coat, she sat down on the floor as gently as she could, an arm wrapped around her child and the other supporting their weight as she set herself down. As she lay back, she cast a quick glance at the elderly in the room. Could they hear the birds too? Olivia made a small noise, and her mother managed to press a soft kiss to the top of her head before setting her own head down on the hard floor and closing her eyes.

They woke up in the TARDIS, still dark, on the jump seat where they fell asleep, and Donna wasted no time in throwing her protests at the Doctor. She followed him as he circled the console. “Spaceman, I don’t know what’s going on, but you better stop it because I do not like it one bloody bit! Besides, this is the real one, this – oh, I keep saying that, don’t I?”

The Doctor stopped himself from retorting. If this really was the real world, then her slaps would feel just as real.

“It’s bloody cold.”

“The heating’s shut down.”

Donna let out a breath in annoyance and held her arms tight against herself, rubbing her upper arms as smoke came out of her mouth as she exhaled, proving how cold it had become. The Doctor noticed this and went to the jump seat to retrieve his coat, hung on the seat, and draped it loosely around her shoulders before bending down to inspect the centre of the console.

“The scanner’s not working either so we can’t see what’s outside and it’d be too much of a risk to open the door to check.” When stripping parts of it did not do any good, he got up and went to the wall and inspected the lock of wires there. Giving up, he returned to the console. “There’s something wrong...so very wrong. It’s like...” he trailed off, regarding whatever it was that was happening as impossible.

And yet...

“What?”

He had that look on his face again. Donna’s heart sank; they were _so_ in trouble. “It’s like someone’s overriding the controls.”

A sound similar to that of a teleportation device was heard, and a man in a black suit appeared a few feet behind the Doctor a split second after the sound. They didn't turn around in time to see his image flickering a few times before stabilizing, like a hologram would. “Well that took you long enough,” he said.

Donna jumped, and the Doctor spun around to look at the man. He stepped forward to the blue glowing light of the console, giving the two a better view of him. He was human – or at least looked human – and was a bit shorter than the Doctor. He looked about thirty years old. His face had mysterious written all over it, and his black suit only added to his enigmatic aura. If he hadn’t been so creepy, Donna would’ve thought him handsome.

The man continued talking. “Tisk tisk. I expected so much from you, Doctor; Last of the Time Lords, Oncoming Storm and whatnot.” He circled the console, walking with his hands in his pockets, past the Doctor and then Donna, who instinctively moved away from the man and closer to the Doctor.

The Doctor stepped forward, his expression very serious. “What are you? How did you get into the TARDIS?” Soft but dark and threatening, very much like the Oncoming Storm.

“Oh well, let’s think of something then,” the man replied, furrowing his eyebrows to create a mock thinking expression. “If you’re called a Time Lord, call me the Dream Lord.”

The Doctor looked the Dream Lord up and down. “Nice hair.” That’s when Donna noticed the two men had similar hairstyles; as the Doctor might call it, uppity wuppity.

The stranger nodded and said, “meh,” as if considering it. “As for the rest of the ensemble, could do better. Suits with Converses, really?”

“What do you want?”

“Hold on for a second,” holding up his hand at the Time Lord, he looked at Donna. “You alright there? Haven’t said anything yet, you must be shocked.”

Donna swallowed, finding her throat dry. “The Dream Lord,” she repeated. “You were responsible for the dreams, then?”

The Dream Lord’s lips curved into a smile. “Ah, very good! Clever. I like this one, Doctor.”

The Doctor stepped towards him. “You didn’t answer my question.”

The Dream Lord ignored him again and talked to Donna. “Let me ask you something, Donna: where would you rather be?”

Donna blinked, and looked from the Dream Lord to the Time Lord and back. She hoped that the Dream Lord wasn’t asking what she thought he was asking.

The Dream Lord continued, “Would you rather be here in the TARDIS, traveling through time and space,” he began to walk around the console again, so the other two had to follow him with their gazes; and when he had made a complete round, stopped in front of Donna. He was taller than she was, so she had to look up at him. “Or would you rather be in Chiswick, settled down with a man who didn’t betray you on the day of your wedding, and with your lovely little daughter?”

The mention of Lance got to her. She hardened her gaze and spoke menacingly. “Oi, listen here, you; I don’t know what you’re on about, but – ”

“Still touchy about it, eh? Pity,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “Oh, you’ve got to sort yourself out, Donna. You know it won’t last forever. You’re going to age. He’ll just change his face over and over, but you...” he looked her up and down with a patronizing gaze.

Donna’s hand flew up to slap his face, but it was quite the shock when her hand just flew past him, his image flickering and then stabilizing. He was smirking. Her jaw dropped, and she extended her arm forward, reaching out to his chest, and didn’t feel anything, and his image flickered, though it flickered stronger around the area where her hand was.

“Interesting,” the Doctor said beside her.

“It’s like – I dunno... a hologram or something,” she said, her hand still moving around. When it migrated to his face, the image in front of her disappeared and before she got to ask where he went, The Dream Lord spoke up behind them. Donna jumped again, and she and the Doctor quickly turned around.

“Brilliant observation skills,” he said sardonically. “Alright, no more funny business; you asked what I wanted and here it is – ”

He disappeared again and reappeared behind them, making them turn around again. “I’ve got a bit of a challenge for you. Two worlds; one here in the TARDIS, and the other in Chiswick. One is real, the other is fake; and to make things more fun, you’re going to face a deadly danger in both of them, but only one of the dangers is real.”

The sound of chirping birds was heard. Donna’s knees started to feel weak. The lethargy was taking over again.

“Tweet tweet, time to sleep,” he said as they fought to stay awake, both of them slowly sinking to the floor and clutching the edge of the console. But they were failing. “Or are you waking up?”

The Doctor put a hand on Donna’s waist as they sank to the floor together, making sure she would land as softly as possible. They fell asleep on the floor beside each other within seconds; the Doctor managed to glare at the Dream Lord before giving in.

The Dream Lord smirked at the sight of them before disappearing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that you've met the Dream Lord, I should tell you that my face claim for him is Dominic Cooper. I just think he'd play the dark and mysterious man in a suit really well and he seems like a great Dream Lord persona for the 10th Doctor. You don't have to follow that though, you could choose someone else; perhaps Andrew Scott. Yes, he'd do very well too. I'd love a Dream Lord with Moriarty tendencies.
> 
> Special thanks to jprg on LiveJournal who wrote a transcript for the episode Amy's Choice, which I found very helpful in writing this fic.
> 
> Also, I'm not quite sure how you spell Mrs. Poggit's name, so I just went with the spelling in the transcript.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is basically Amy's Choice but with Ten and Donna.


End file.
